Income is commonly used to measure affluence, although this is a relative indicator: a middle class person with a personal income of $77,500 annually and a billionaire may both be referred to as affluent, depending on reference groups. An average American with a median income of $32,000[7] ($39,000 for those employed full-time between the ages of 25 and 64)[8] when used as a reference group would justify the personal income in the tenth percentile of $77,500 being described as affluent,[7] but if this earner were compared to an executive of a Fortune 500 company, then the description would not apply.[9][10] Accordingly, marketing firms and investment houses classify those with household incomes exceeding $250,000 as mass affluent, while the threshold upper class is most commonly defined as the top 1% with household incomes commonly exceeding $525,000 annually.

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, 42% of U.S. households have two income earners, thus making households' income levels higher than personal income levels;[11] the percent of married-couple families with children where both parents work is 59.1%.[12]

In 2005, the economic survey revealed the following income distribution for households and individuals:

The top 5% of individuals had six figure incomes (exceeding $100,000); the top 10% of individuals had incomes exceeding $75,000;[7]

The top 5% of households, three quarters of whom had two income earners, had incomes of $166,200 (about 10 times the 2009 US minimum wage, for one income earner, and about 5 times the 2009 US minimum wage for two income earners) or higher,[11] with the top 10% having incomes well in excess of $100,000.[13]

Households may also be differentiated among each other, depending on whether or not they have one or multiple income earners (the high female participation in the economy means that many households have two working members[15]). For example, in 2005 the median household income for a two income earner households was $67,000 while the median income for an individual employed full-time with a graduate degree was in excess of $60,000, demonstrating that nearly half of individuals with a graduate degree have higher earnings than most dual income households.[8]

By another measure - the number of square feet per person in the home - the average home in the United States has more than 700 square feet per person, 50% - 100% more than in other high-income countries (though this indicator may be regarded as an accident of geography, climate and social preference, both within the USA and beyond it) but this metric indicates even those in the lowest income percentiles enjoy more living space than the middle classes in most European nations. Similarly ownership levels of 'gadgets' and access to amenities are exceptionally high compared to many other countries.[16][17]

Overall, the term affluent may be applied to a variety of individuals, households, or other entities, depending on context. Data from the U.S. Census Bureau serves as the main guideline for defining affluence. U.S. government data not only reveal the nation's income distribution but also the demographic characteristics of those to whom the term "affluent", may be applied.[11]

This section's factual accuracy may be compromised due to out-of-date information. Please update this article to reflect recent events or newly available information.(May 2013)

Affluence and economic standing within society are often expressed in terms of percentile ranking. Economic ranking is conducted either in terms of giving lower thresholds for a designated group (e.g. the top 5%, 10%, 15%, etc.) or in terms of the percentage of households/individuals with incomes above a certain threshold (e.g. above $75,000, $100,000, $150,000, etc.). The table below presents 2006 income data in terms of the lower thresholds for the given percentages (e.g. the top 25.6% of households had incomes exceeding $80,000, compared to $47,000 for the top quarter of individuals).[7][13]

Household income changes over time, with income gains being substantially larger for the upper percentiles than for the lower percentiles.[19] All areas of the income strata have seen their incomes rise since the late 1960s, especially during the late 1990s.[18] The overall increase in household income is largely the result of an increase in the percentage of households with more than one income earner. While households with just one income earner, most commonly the male, were the norm in the middle of the 20th century, 42% of all households and the vast majority of married couple households now have two or more income earners. With so many households now having two income earners, the substantial increase in household income is easily explained:[15]

The typical middle-class household in the United States is no longer a one-earner family, with one parent in the workforce and one at home full-time. Instead, the majority of families with small children now have both parents rising at dawn to commute to jobs so they can both pull in paychecks... Today the median income for a fully employed male is $41,670 per year (all numbers are inflation-adjusted to 2004 dollars)—nearly $800 less than his counterpart of a generation ago. The only real increase in wages for a family has come from the second paycheck earned by a working mother. – Elizabeth Warren, Harvard Magazine.[15]

Two income-earner households are more common among the top quintile of households than the general population: 2006 U.S. Census Bureau data indicates that over three quarters, 76%, of households in the top quintile, with annual incomes exceeding $91,200, had two or more income earners compared to just 42% among the general population and a small minority in the bottom three quintiles. As a result, much of the rising income inequity between the upper and lower percentiles can be explained through the increasing percentage of households with two or more incomes.[15][19]

Data

2003

2000

1997

1994

1991

1988

1985

1982

1979

1976

1973

1970

1967

20th percentile

$17,984

$19,142

$17,601

$16,484

$16,580

$17,006

$16,306

$15,548

$16,457

$15,615

$15,844

$15,126

$14,002

Median (50th)

$43,318

$44,853

$42,294

$39,613

$39,679

$40,678

$38,510

$36,811

$38,649

$36,155

$37,700

$35,832

$33,338

80th percentile

$86,867

$87,341

$81,719

$77,154

$74,759

$75,593

$71,433

$66,920

$68,318

$63,247

$64,500

$60,148

$55,265

95th percentile

$154,120

$155,121

$144,636

$134,835

$126,969

$127,958

$119,459

$111,516

$111,445

$100,839

$102,243

$95,090

$88,678

Source: U.S. Census Bureau (2004): "Income, Poverty, and Health Insurance Coverage in the United States: 2003", p. 36 et seq. All figures are inflation-adjusted and given in 2003 dollars.[18]

The vast majority of Americans derive the majority of their income from occupational earnings.[20]Income derived from an occupation is largely determined by scarcity, the economic law of supply and demand, and politics (e.g., AMA lobbying efforts). The greater the demand for a certain specialty and the less supply, the higher the income.

A correlation has been shown between increases in income and increases in worker satisfaction. Increasing worker satisfaction, however, is not solely a result of the increase in income: workers in more complex and higher level occupations tend to have attained higher levels of education and thus are more likely to have a greater degree of autonomy in the workplace.[20] Additionally, higher level workers with advanced degrees are hired to share their personal knowledge, to conceptualize, and to consult. Higher-level workers typically suffer less job alienation and reap not only external benefits in terms of income from their jobs, but also enjoy high levels of intrinsic motivation and satisfaction.[10][20]

In the United States, the highest earning occupational group is referred to as white collar professionals. Individuals in this occupational classification tend to report the highest job satisfaction and highest incomes. Defining income based on title of a profession can be misleading, given that a professional title may indicate the type of education received, but does not always correlate with the actual day to day income-generating endeavors that are pursued.

Some sources cite the profession of physician in the United States as the highest paying,[10] Physician (M.D. and D.O.) and Dentist (D.M.D and D.D.S) compensation ranks as the highest median annual earnings of all professions. Median annual earnings ranged from $149,310 for general dentists and $156,010 for family physicians to $321,686 for anesthesiologists. Surgeons post a median annual income of $282,504.[21] However, the annual salary for Chief Executive Officer (C.E.O.) is projected quite differently based on source: Salary.com reports a median salary of $634,941,[22] while the U.S. Department of Labor in May 2004 reported the median as $140,350.[23] This is primarily due to a methodological difference in terms of which companies were surveyed. Overall annual earnings among the nation's top 25 professions ranged from the $70,000s to the $300,000s.

In addition to physicians, lawyers, physicists, and nuclear engineers were all among the nation's 20 highest paid occupations with incomes in excess of $78,410.[24] Some of the other occupations in the high five-figure range were economists with a median of $72,780,[25] mathematicians with $81,240,[26] financial managers with $81,880,[27] and software publishers with median annual earnings of $73,060.[28] The median annual earnings of wage-and-salary pharmacists in May 2006 were $94,520. The median annual earnings of wage-and-salary engineers in November 2011 were $90,000. The middle 50 percent earned between $83,180 and $108,140 a year (as in the Occupational Outlook Handbook, 2008–09 Edition by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics).

Educational attainment plays a major factor in determining an individual's economic disposition. Personal income varied greatly according to an individual's education, as did household income.

Incomes for those employed, full-time, year-round and over the age of twenty-five ranged from $20,826 ($17,422 if including those who worked part-time[7]) for those with less than a ninth grade education to $100,000 for those with professional degrees ($82,473 if including those who work part-time[7]). The median income for individuals with doctorates was $79,401 ($70,853 if including those who work part-time[7]).[29]

These statistics reveal that the majority of those employed full-time with professional or doctoral degrees are among the overall top 10% (15% if including those who work part-time) of income earners. Of those with a master's degree, nearly 50% were among the top quarter of income earners (top third if including those who work part-time).[7]

Percent of households with six figure incomes and individuals with incomes in the top 10%, exceeding $77,500.

Recent U.S. Census Bureau publications indicate a strong correlation between race and affluence. In the top household income quintile (households with incomes exceeding $91,200), Asian Americans and Whites were over represented, whereas Hispanics and African Americans were underrepresented.

The household income for Asian Americans was, at $61,094, by far the highest,[30] exceeding that of Whites ($48,554) by 26%.[31] Over a quarter, 27.5%, of Asian American households had incomes exceeding $100,000, and another 40% had incomes of over $75,000.[32]

Among White households, who remained near the national median, 18.3% had six figure incomes, while 28.9% had incomes exceeding $75,000.[31] The percentages of households with incomes exceeding $100,000 and $75,000 were far below the national medians for Hispanic and African American households.[33] Among Hispanic households, for example, only 9% had six figure incomes, and 17% had incomes exceeding $75,000.[34] The race gap remained when considering personal income. In 2005, roughly 11% of Asian Americans[35] and 7% of White individuals[36] had six figure incomes, compared to 2.6% among Hispanics[37] and 2.3% among African Americans.[38]

While White households are always near the national median due to Whites being by far the most prevalent racial demographic, the percentages of minority households with incomes exceeding $100,000 strayed considerably from their percentage of the overall population: Asian Americans, who represent the smallest surveyed racial demographic in the overall population, were the found to be the prevalent minority among six figure income households.

Among the nearly twenty million households with six figure incomes, 86.9% were White,[31] 5.9% were Asian American,[30] 5.6% were Hispanic[34] and 5.5% were African American.[33] Among the general individual population with earnings, 82.1% were White,[36] 12.7% were Hispanic,[37] 11.0% were African American[38] and 4.6% were Asian American.[35]

Of the top 10% of income earners, those nearly 15 million individuals with incomes exceeding $77,500, Whites and Asians were once again over-represented with the percentages of African Americans and Hispanics trailing behind considerably. Of the top 10% of earners, 86.7% were White.[36] Asian Americans were the prevalent minority, constituting 6.8% of top 10% income earners, nearly twice the percentage of Asian Americans among the general population.[35]

Hispanics, who were the prevalent minority in the general population of income earners, constituted only 5.2% of those in the top 10%,[37] with African Americans being the least represented with 5.1%.[38]

Economic well-being is often associated with high societal status, yet income and economic compensation are a function of scarcity and act as only one of a number of indicators of social class. It is in the interest of all of society that open positions are adequately filled with a competent occupant enticed to do his or her best.[10] As a result, an occupation that requires a scarce skill, the attainment of which is often documented through an educational degree, and entrusts its occupant with a high degree of influence will generally offer high economic compensation.

To put it another way, the high income is intended to ensure that the desired individuals obtain the necessary skills (e.g. medical or graduate school) and complete their tasks with the necessary vigor[41] but differences in income may, however, be found among occupations of similar sociological nature: the median annual earnings of a physician were in excess of $150,000 in May 2004, compared to $95,000 for an attorney.[21][24] Both occupations require finely tuned and scarce skill sets and both are essential to the well-being of society, yet physicians out-earned attorneys and other upper middle class professionals by a wide margin as their skill-sets are deemed especially scarce.

Overall, high status positions tend to be those requiring a scarce skill and are therefore commonly far better compensated than those in the middle of the occupational strata.[10][41]

...It is essential that the duties of the positions be performed with the diligence that their importance requires. Inevitably, then, a society must have, first, some kind of rewards that it can use as inducements, and, second, some way of distributing these rewards differently according to positions. The rewards and their distribution become part of the social order... If the rights and perquisites of different positions in a society must be unequal, then society must be stratified... Hence every society... must differentiate persons... and must therefore possess a certain amount of institutionalized inequality.

It is important to note that the above is an ideal type, a simplified model or reality using optimal circumstances. In reality other factors such as discrimination based on race, ethnicity and gender as well as aggressive political lobbying by certain professional organizations also influence personal income. An individual's personal career decisions, as well as his or her personal connections within the nation's economic institutions, are also likely to have an effect on income, status and whether or not an individual may be referred to as affluent.[9]

In contemporary America it is a combination of all these factors, with scarcity remaining by far the most prominent one, which determine a person's economic compensation. Due to higher status professions requiring advanced and thus less commonly found skill sets (including the ability to supervise and work with a considerable autonomy), these professions are better compensated through the means of income, making high status individuals affluent, depending on reference group.[10]

While the two paragraphs above only describe the relationship between status and personal income, household income is also often used to infer status. As a result, the dual income phenomenon presents yet another problem in equating affluence with high societal status. As mentioned earlier in the article, 42% of households have two or more income earners, and 76% of households with six figure incomes have two or more income earners.[11] Furthermore, people are most likely to marry their professional and societal equals.

It therefore becomes apparent that the majority of households with incomes exceeding the six figure mark are the result of an economic as well as personal union between two economic equals. Today, two nurses, each making $55,000 a year, can easily out-earn a single attorney who makes the median of $95,000 annually.[24][42] Despite household income rising drastically through the union of two economic equals, neither individual has advanced his or her function and position within society. Yet the household (not the individual) may have become more affluent, assuming an increase in household members does not offset the dual-income derived gains.

As of 2002, there were approximately 146,000 (0.1%) households with incomes exceeding $1,500,000, while the top 0.01% or 11,000 households had incomes exceeding $5,500,000. The 400 highest tax payers in the nation had gross annual household incomes exceeding $87,000,000. Household incomes for this group have risen more dramatically than for any other. As a result, the gap between those who make less than one and half million dollars annually (99.9% of households) and those who make more (0.1%) has been steadily increasing, prompting The New York Times to proclaim that the "Richest Are Leaving Even the Rich Far Behind."[43]

The income disparities within the top 1.5% are quite drastic.[44] While households in the top 1.5% of households had incomes exceeding $250,000, 443% above the national median, their incomes were still 2200% lower than those of the top 0.1% of households. One can therefore conclude that almost any household, even those with incomes of $250,000 annually, are poor when compared to the top 0.01%, who in turn are poor compared to the top 0.000267%, the top 400 taxpaying households.[original research?]

1.
Income in the United States
–
Income in the United States is measured by the United States Department of Commerce either by household or individual. This difference becomes apparent when comparing the percentage of households with six figure incomes to that of individuals. In 2006,17. 3% of households had incomes exceeding $100,000, overall the median household income was $46,326 in 2006 while the median personal income was $32,140. Income inequality in the United States has increased considerably, while wages for women have increased greatly, median earnings of male wage earners have remained stagnant since the late 1970s. Household income, however, has risen due the number of household with more than one income earners. Half of the U. S. population lives in poverty or is low-income, according to U. S. Census data. On the other hand, some members of the U. S. population have earned a considerable income, the top earner in 2011, hedge fund manager John Paulson, earned $4.9 billion, according to Business Insider

2.
Household income in the United States
–
Household income is an economic measure that can be applied to one household, or aggregated across a large group such as a county, city, or the whole country. It is commonly used by the United States government and private institutions to describe a households economic status or to track trends in the US. Household income is measured in various ways, one key measure is the real median level, meaning half of households have income above that level and half below, adjusted for inflation. According to the Federal Reserve, this measure was $56,516 in 2015 and this was the largest one-year percentage increase on record. However, it remained 2. 5% below the 1999 peak of $57,909, the Census Bureau estimated real median household income at $55,775 in 2015, up $2,062 or 3. 8% from the 2014 level of $53,713. Household income varies geographically and by race, the overall median has continued to rise steadily, if slowly, to $57,616 in September 2016 according to one unofficial source that reports monthly versus annually. After falling somewhat due to the Great Recession in 2008 and 2009, inequality rose again during the economic recovery, the residents of the household do not have to be related to the head of the household for their earnings to be considered part of the households income. As households tend to share an economic context, the use of household income remains among the most widely accepted measures of income. The U. S. Census Bureau reported in September 2016 that real median income was $55,775 in 2015. This was the third year with a statistically significant increase by their measure. The U. S. Census Bureau reported in September 2014 that, U. S. real median income was $51,939 in 2013 versus $51,759 in 2012. In 2013, real median income was 8.0 percent lower than in 2007. Real median household income averaged $50,781 from 1964-2013, ranging from a low of $43,558 in 1967 to a high of $56,895 in 1999, the recovery from the 2007-2009 recession had not translated into higher incomes for the typical American family. For instance, the retirement of the Baby Boom generation should push down overall median income, however, analysis of different working age groups indicate a similar pattern of stagnating median income as well. But foreign-produced goods became sharply cheaper, meaning imports climbed and production moved overseas, and computers took over for humans in many manufacturing, clerical, and administrative tasks, eroding middle-class jobs growth and suppressing wages. Another line of analysis, known as compensation, presents a more complete picture of real wages. The Kaiser Family Foundation conducted a study in 2013 which shows that employer contributions to healthcare costs went up 78% from 2003 to 2013. The marketplace has made a trade-off, expanding benefits packages vs. increasing wages, measured relative to GDP, total compensation and its component wages and salaries have been declining since 1970

3.
Personal income in the United States
–
Personal income is an individuals total earnings from wages, investment interest, and other sources. The US Census Bureau reported a personal income of $30,240 for all workers over age 15 with income. Inflation-adjusted per-capita disposable personal income rose steadily in the U. S. from 1945 to 2008, Income patterns are evident on the basis of age, sex, ethnicity and educational characteristics. In 2005 roughly half of all those with graduate degrees were among the nations top 15% of income earners, according to the US Census, men tended to have higher income than women while Asians and Whites earned more than African Americans and Hispanics. In the United States the most widely cited personal income statistics are the Bureau of Economic Analysiss personal income, the two statistics spring from different traditions of measurement—personal income from national economic accounts and money income from household surveys. BEAs statistics relate personal income to measures of production, including GDP, the Census Bureaus statistics provide detail on income distribution and demographics and are used to produce the nations official poverty statistics. Personal income also includes income received by nonprofit institutions serving households, by private non-insured welfare funds, BEA also publishes disposable personal income, which measures the income available to households after paying federal and state and local government income taxes. Income from production is generated both by the labor of individuals and by the capital that they own, Income that is not earned from production in the current period—such as capital gains, which relate to changes in the price of assets over time—is excluded. BEAs monthly personal income estimates are one of several key macroeconomic indicators that the National Bureau of Economic Research considers when dating the business cycle, Personal income and disposable personal income are provided both as aggregate and as per capita statistics. BEA produces monthly estimates of income for the nation, quarterly estimates of state personal income. More information is found on BEAs website, the CPS is the source of the official national estimates of poverty and the most widely cited source of annual household income estimates for the United States. The CPS measure of income is defined as the total pre-tax cash income received by people on a regular basis, excluding certain lump-sum payments. The Census Bureau releases estimates of money income as medians, percent distributions by income categories. Estimates are available by demographic characteristics of householders and by the composition of households, more details on income concepts and sources are found on the Census Bureaus website. Of those individuals with income who were older than 15 years of age, the distribution of income among individuals differs substantially from household incomes as 39% of all households had two or more income earners. As a result, 25% of households have incomes above $100,000, as a reference point, the US minimum wage since 2009 has been $7.25 per hour or $15,080 for the 2080 hours in a typical work year. Annual wages of $30,160, $45,240, $75,400, $150,800, SOURCE, US Census Bureau, Current Population Survey 2016 This chart is median income of 15 year olds or older, who have non-zero income. Amounts are shown in dollars and in real dollars in parentheses,2004 dollars

4.
Social class in the United States
–
Social class in the United States is a controversial issue, having many competing definitions, models, and even disagreements over its very existence. Many Americans believe in a simple model that includes the rich, the middle class. More complex models that have been proposed describe as many as a dozen class levels, while others deny the very existence, in the European sense. Most definitions of structure group people according to wealth, income, education, type of occupation. Most of the social classes entirely ignore the existence of black, Hispanic. Sociologists Dennis Gilbert, William Thompson, Joseph Hickey, and James Henslin have proposed class systems with six distinct social classes, some definitions of class look only at numerical measures such as wealth or income. Others take into account qualitative factors, such as education, culture, there is no consensus on which of these variables is essential and which are merely common correlates. Social class is presented as a description of how members of the society have sorted themselves along a continuum of positions varying in importance, influence, prestige. In these models, certain occupations are considered to be desirable and influential, while others are considered to be menial, repetitive, generally, the higher the ranking on such a scale, the higher the skill and education levels required to perform it. Some sociologists consider the income and prestige of higher ranked jobs to simply be incentives to encourage members of society to obtain the skills necessary to perform important work. This is an important mechanism in the theory of capitalism. In other cases, class or status is inherited and those taking the functionalist approach to sociology and economics view social classes as components essential for the survival of complex societies such as American society. Income in the United States is most commonly measured by United States Census Bureau in terms of household or individual. As 82% of all households, 16% of those in the top quintiles, had two income earners the discrepancy between household and personal income is quite considerable. In 2005 the top 95% of income earners made $12,500 or more, personal income is largely the result of scarcity. As individuals who hold higher status positions tend to possess rare skills or assume positions society deems very essential, have higher incomes, overall the median household income was $46,326 in 2005 while the median personal income was $32,140. Per capita household income, the income a household is able to allocate to each member of the household is also an important variable in determining a given standard of living. A high household income may be offset by a household size, thus

5.
Income inequality in the United States
–
This trend is evident with income measured both before taxes as well as after taxes and transfer payments. Measured for working-age households, market income inequality is comparatively high and these comparisons indicate Americans shift from reliance on market income to reliance on income transfers later in life and less than households in other developed countries do. The U. S. ranks around the 30th percentile in income inequality globally, U. S. federal tax and transfer policies are progressive and therefore reduce income inequality measured after taxes and transfers. Tax and transfer policies together reduced income inequality slightly more in 2011 than in 1979, U. S. income inequality has grown significantly since the early 1970s, after several decades of stability, and has been the subject of study of many scholars and institutions. The top 1% of households received approximately 20% of the income in 2013. The top 1% is not homogeneous, with the top income households pulling away from others in the top 1%. For example, the top 0. 1% of households received approximately 10% of the income in 2013. According to IRS data, adjusted gross income of approximately $430,000 was required to be in the top 1% in 2013. Most of the growth in inequality has been between the middle class and top earners, with the disparity widening the further one goes up in the income distribution. The bottom 50% earned 20% of the nations income in 1979. Income for the middle 40% group, a proxy for the middle class, half of the U. S. population lives in poverty or is low-income, according to U. S. Census data. The trend of rising income inequality is apparent after taxes. U. S. federal tax and transfer policies are progressive and therefore reduce income inequality measured after taxes. They became moderately less progressive between 1979 and 2007 but slightly more progressive measured between 1979 and 2011, Income transfers had a greater impact on reducing inequality than taxes from 1979 to 2011. Americans are not generally aware of the extent of inequality or recent trends, the U. S. was ranked the 6th worst among 173 countries on income equality measured by the Gini index. There is significant and ongoing debate as to the causes, economic effects, while before-tax income inequality is subject to market factors, after-tax income inequality can be directly affected by tax and transfer policy. U. S. income inequality is comparable to developed nations before taxes and transfers. Income inequality may contribute to economic growth, reduced income mobility, higher levels of household debt

6.
Racial wage gap in the United States
–
In the United States, despite the efforts of equality proponents, income inequality persists among races. Asian Americans have the highest average income, followed by White Americans, Latino Americans, African Americans, when the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was passed, it became illegal for employers to discriminate based on race, however, income disparities have not flattened out. As of 2009, the weekly wage for African American and Hispanic workers was about 65 percent and 61 percent that of White workers. Asian workers median wage was about 101 percent that of white workers, overall, minority womens wages in comparison to those of white women are better than minority mens wages when compared to those of white men. Knowing the inequalities in the wages of various races is useful for understanding the overall racial inequality in the United States because of the role that wages play. The factors contributing to the gaps for various races and the degree to which they affect each race varies. Education is one of the most influential determinants of wage, varying education levels among races lead to different wages for various racial groups. Education affects wages because it allows access to occupations of higher status that offer greater earnings, when the education of different groups becomes more equal, wage gaps decrease, though they do not disappear. The way in which races are distributed throughout occupations affects the wage gap. White and Asian Americans, who have the highest median incomes, are concentrated more in professional, executive, occupational distribution varies for women of various races as well. White and Asian women are likely to work in managerial and professional occupations, while black, Hispanic. Thus, because certain races are more likely to have lower-paying jobs, a study conducted by Kenneth Couch and Mary Daly found that the occupational distribution between blacks and white improved between 1970 and the 1990s. In 1968, a male was only 20 percent as likely to be employed as a manager as a white male. In 1998, the percentages increased to 50% and 70 percent, despite this improvement, however, occupational distribution differences still exist between blacks and whites. In 1998, a male was still more likely than a white male to work in lower-skills jobs. The globalization of the United States economy in the 1970s and 1980s caused a shift in the U. S. income distribution, as the United States joined the global market economy, three outcomes occurred. Those who possessed financial and human capital, such as education, succeeded in the new economy because the money and those who possessed only labor did not fare well because cheap, physical labor was in oversupply in the global market. The increase in wage inequality created by the new economys lower demand for physical labor disproportionately affected minorities as well

7.
List of U.S. states by Gini coefficient
–
The Gini coefficient is a measure of inequality of variance. It is often applied to measure inequality of incomes in a particular area, a score of 0 on the Gini coefficient represents complete equality, i. e. every person has the same income. A score of 1 would represent complete inequality, i. e. where one person has all the income, therefore, a lower Gini score is roughly associated with a more equal distribution of income, and vice versa. The information was tabulated in 2010 from data from the American Community Survey conducted by the US Census Bureau, utah shows the flattest income distribution while the District of Columbia and New York State have the largest income disparities between wage earners in all income categories. U. S. income inequality was at its highest level since the United States Census Bureau began tracking household income in 1967, the U. S. also has the greatest disparity among Western industrialized nations. The list goes from lowest Gini coefficient to the highest, the Gini index for the United States as a whole is 0.469

8.
List of lowest-income places in the United States
–
According to the United States Census Bureau the following are the places in the United States with the lowest per capita or median household income. Locations with populations from the 2010 census are ranked by median income as surveyed between 2008 and 2012. For comparison, locations are listed with populations per capita income from the 2000 census. The most sizable community in 2000 was Kiryas Joel, New York which had a per capita income of just $4,355. In terms of size, Pine Ridge Indian Reservation and the adjacent Rosebud Indian Reservation have long been among the lowest income areas in the United States. Three of the lowest ten per capita income locations in the U. S. are on these two reservations, which constitute the three largest populations in the ten locations. The data below are for annual median income, based on 2008–2012 American Community Survey data from the U. S. Census Bureau. Only places with a population over 1,000 are included, for comparison, the median household income for the United States is $53,046. Out of these 100 places,30 are majority white,47 are majority Black,4 are majority Native American, for the survey, a large city is defined as a city with a population of 250,000 or more. Percentage of residents living below the U. S. government established poverty income level is listed, based on 2012 US Census estimates

9.
Inherited wealth
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Inheritance is the practice of passing on property, titles, debts, rights, and obligations upon the death of an individual. The rules of inheritance differ between societies and have changed over time, a person does not become an heir before the death of the deceased, since the exact identity of the persons entitled to inherit is determined only then. There is a concept of joint inheritance, pending renunciation by all but one. In modern law, the inheritance and heir refer exclusively to succession to property by descent from a deceased dying intestate. Some ancient societies and most modern states employ egalitarian inheritance, without discrimination based on gender and/or birth order, the Quran also presented efforts to fix the laws of inheritance, and thus forming a complete legal system. This development was in contrast to societies where rules of inheritance varied considerably. Furthermore, the Quran introduced additional heirs that were not entitled inheritance in pre-Islamic times, mentioning nine relatives specifically of which six were female, in addition to the above changes, the Quran imposed restrictions on testamentary powers of a Muslim in disposing his or her property. In their will, a Muslim can only give out a maximum of one third of their property, the Quran contains only three verses that give specific details of inheritance and shares, in addition to few other verses dealing with testamentary. But this information was used as a point by Muslim jurists who expounded the laws of inheritance even further using Hadith. Nowadays, inheritance is considered a part of Sharia law and its application for Muslims is mandatory, though many peoples. The father —that is, the owner of the land— bequeaths only to his male descendants, if there were no living sons and no descendants of any previously living sons, daughters could inherit. In Numbers 27, 1-4, the daughters of Zelophehad of the tribe of Manasseh come to Moses and ask for their fathers inheritance, as they have no brothers. The order of inheritance is set out in Numbers 27, 7-11, a mans sons inherit first, daughters if no sons, brothers if he has no children, and so on. So a further rule is laid down, if a daughter inherits land, the tractate Baba Bathra, written during late Antiquity in Babylon, deals extensively with issues of property ownership and inheritance according to Jewish Law. The first, often abbreviated to Mishneh Torah, was written by Maimonides and was important in Jewish tradition. All these sources agree that the son is entitled to a double portion of his fathers estate. This means that, for example, if a father left five sons, if he left nine sons, the firstborn receives a fifth and each of the other eight receive a tenth. If the eldest surviving son is not the son, he is not entitled to the double portion

10.
Institute for Policy Studies
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Not to be confused with the UK-based Policy Studies Institute The Institute for Policy Studies is a left-wing think tank based in Washington, D. C. It has been directed by John Cavanagh since 1998, the organization focuses on U. S. foreign policy, domestic policy, human rights, international economics, and national security. IPS has been described as one of the five major, independent think tanks in Washington, the institute was founded in 1963 by two former governmental workers, Marcus Raskin and Richard Barnet. As soon as IPS opened its doors in 1963, it plunged into the anti-Vietnam War movement, in 1965, Raskin and Associate Fellow Bernard Fall edited The Vietnam Reader, which became a textbook for teach-ins across the country. IPS was the object of repeated FBI and Internal Revenue Service probes, the Nixon Administration placed Barnet and Raskin on their now infamous Enemies List. In 1964, several leading African-American activists joined the staff and turned IPS into a base of support for the Civil Rights Movement in the nations capital, the IPS was also at the forefront of the feminist movement. Fellow Charlotte Bunch organized a womens liberation conference in 1966. Rita Mae Brown wrote and published her path-breaking lesbian coming-of-age novel Rubyfruit Jungle while on the staff in the 1970s, ronni Karpen Moffitt, a 25-year-old IPS development associate, was also killed. The award recipients receive the Letelier-Moffitt Human Rights Award, the Transnational Institute, an international progressive think tank based in Amsterdam, was originally established as the IPSs international program, although it became independent in 1973. In its attention to the role of corporations, it was also an early critic of what has come to be called globalization. Richard Barnets 1974 examination of the power of corporations, Global Reach was one of the first books on the subject. In the 1980s, IPS became heavily involved in supporting the movement against U. S. intervention in Central America. S. In 1985, Fellow Roger Wilkins helped found the Free South Africa Movement, in 1986, after six years of the Reagan administration, Sidney Blumenthal claimed that Ironically, as IPS has declined in Washington influence, its stature has grown in conservative demonology. In the Reagan era, the institute has loomed as a right-wing obsession, in the early 1990s, IPS began monitoring the environmental impacts of U. S. trade, investment, and drug policies. Joshua Muravchik, a scholar with the American Enterprise Institute has also accused the institute of communist sympathies. An analysis from The Heritage Foundation described IPS as, a radical organization. In 1974, the Institute created an Organizing Committee for the Fifth Estate as part of its Center for National Security Studies which published the magazine CounterSpy, bittman argued that IPS was one of the several liberal think tanks that acted as pro-Soviet propaganda agencies. Most of the came from a foundation of Samuel Rubin

11.
American middle class
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The American middle class is a social class in the United States. Depending on the model used, the middle class constitutes anywhere from 25% to 66% of households. One of the first major studies of the class in America was White Collar, The American Middle Classes. Later sociologists such as Dennis Gilbert of Hamilton College commonly divide the class into two sub-groups. Constituting roughly 15% to 20% of households is the upper or professional middle class consisting of highly educated, salaried professionals, constituting roughly one third of households is the lower middle class consisting mostly of semi-professionals, skilled craftsmen and lower-level management. Middle-class persons commonly have a standard of living, significant economic security, considerable work autonomy. Members of the middle class belong to groups which overlap with each other. Overall, middle-class persons, especially upper-middle-class individuals, are characterized by conceptualizing, creating and consulting, thus, college education is one of the main indicators of middle-class status. Largely attributed to the nature of middle-class occupations, middle class tend to emphasize independence, adherence to intrinsic standards, valuing innovation. Politically more active than other demographics, college educated middle class professionals are split between the two major parties, Income varies considerably from near the national median to well in excess of US$100,000. Household income figures, however, do not always reflect class status and standard of living, as they are influenced by the number of income earners. It is therefore possible for a large, dual-earner, lower middle class household to out-earn a small, the middle classes are very influential, as they encompass the majority of voters, writers, teachers, journalists, and editors. Most societal trends in the US originate within the middle classes, scholars have a variety of technical measures of who is middle-class. By contrast public opinion has a variety of implicit measures, the definitions seem to stretch quite a great deal depending on the political cause that is being invoked or defended, as one commentator noted, Well, it depends on whom you ask. Everyone wants to believe they are middle class, for people on the bottom and the top of the wage scale the phrase connotes a certain Regular Joe cachet. But this eagerness to be part of the group has led the definition to be stretched like a bungee cord - used to everything from the Earned Income Tax Credit to the estate tax. While the groups overlap, differences between those at the center of both groups are considerable, the lower middle class has lower educational attainment, considerably less workplace autonomy, and lower incomes than the upper middle class. With the emergence of a labor market, the economic benefits

12.
Fortune 500
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The Fortune 500 is an annual list compiled and published by Fortune magazine that ranks 500 of the largest U. S. corporations by total revenue for their respective fiscal years. The list includes public companies, along with privately held companies for which revenues are publicly available, the concept of the Fortune 500 was created by Edgar P. Smith, a Fortune editor, and the first list was published in 1955. The Fortune 500 is more used than its subset Fortune 100 or wider list Fortune 1000. The original Fortune 500 was limited to companies whose revenues were derived from manufacturing, mining, at the same time, Fortune published companion Fortune 50 lists of the 50 largest commercial banks, utilities, life insurance companies, retailers and transportation companies. Fortune magazine changed its methodology in 1994 to include service companies, with the change came 291 new entrants to the famous list including three in the Top 10. The Fortune 500 was first published in 1955, created by Edgar P. Smith, the original top ten companies were General Motors, Exxon Mobil, U. S. Steel, General Electric, Esmark, Chrysler, Armour, Gulf Oil, Mobil and DuPont

13.
Mass affluent
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Mass affluent consumers are an important target market for sellers of luxury goods. There may be a correlation between the households in the upper-middle reaches of the income strata and the mass affluent. Social class is the result of a function within society rather than merely the income of the household in which he or she resides. Both terms refer to people whose wealth or income is above the average, as opposed to households with above average incomes the mass affluent are also defined through liquid assets such as stocks, bonds, cash, and mutual funds. Fixed assets such as real estate are not commonly counted and this is because liquid assets provide more financial flexibility, which is a desirable trait in customers. The mass affluent have been characterized as those who save more than they spend, the mass affluent generally may worry about replacing their paycheck in retirement, and may need to be encouraged to spend more money during their retirement years. They often wish to leave an inheritance to their children, the mass affluent will have between $500,000 and $1.5 million in investable assets upon retirement with a net worth between $500,000 and $2.5 million. They spend between $4,000 and $10,000 per month in retirement, in the United States there are roughly 33 million mass affluent households, and they own roughly 37% of Americas liquid financial assets. Among family households, approximately thirty percent could be described as being mass affluent, Mass Affluence, Seven New Rules of Marketing to Todays Consumer, Harvard Business School Press. Silverstein, Michael J. and Neil Fiske, trading Up, Why Consumers Want New Luxury Goods— and How Companies Create Them, Portfolio. 2004. scotsman. com Chasing the Mass Affluent Customers Mass Affluence, Seven New Rules for Marketing to Todays Customer Luxury goes mass market, Fortune A $400 Coach bag

14.
American upper class
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The American upper class is a social group consisting of the people who have the highest social rank and who are usually rich. People of this class are socioeconomically distinguishable from other classes by its greater influence, power. The study of attitudes is reasonably easy its concluded that for roughly 70% of the population – the lower 70% on the wealth/income scale – they have no influence on policy whatsoever, as you move up the wealth/income ladder, you get a little bit more influence on policy. When you get to the top, which is maybe a tenth of one percent, people essentially get what they want, so the proper term for that is not democracy, its plutocracy. Many Politicians, heirs to fortunes, top executives, CEOs, successful venture capitalists, those born into high society. Some prominent and high-rung professionals may also be included if they attain great influence, the main distinguishing feature of this class, which is estimated to constitute roughly 1% of the population, is the source of income. While the vast majority of people and households derive their income from wages or salaries, estimates for the size of this group commonly vary from 1% to 2%, while some surveys have indicated that as many as 6% of Americans identify as upper class. Sociologist Leonard Beeghley sees wealth as the only significant distinguishing feature of class and, therefore. The members of the tiny capitalist class at the top of the hierarchy have an influence on economy and they make investment decisions that open or close employment opportunities for millions of others. They contribute money to political parties, and they often own media enterprises that allow them influence over the thinking of other classes, the capitalist class strives to perpetuate itself, Assets, lifestyles, values and social networks. Are all passed from one generation to the next, –Dennis Gilbert, The American Class Structure,1998 Sociologists such as W. Lloyd Warner, William Thompson and Joseph Hickey recognize prestige differences between members of the upper class. But its money buys plenty of access, notably, this view does not address wealth, which plays an important role in allocating status and power. In order to make sure important and complex tasks are handled by qualified and motivated personnel, society offers incentives such as income. The more scarce qualified applicants are and the more essential the given task is and that a position does not bring power and prestige because it draws a high income. Rather, it draws a high income because it is functionally important and it is therefore superficial and erroneous to regard high income as the cause of a mans power and prestige, just as it is erroneous to think that a mans fever is the cause of his disease. The economic source of power and prestige is not income primarily, such ownership should be distinguished from the possession of consumers goods, which is an index rather than a cause of social standing. – Kingsley Davis and Wilbert E. Moore, Principles of Stratification, as mentioned above, income is one of the most prominent features of social class, but not necessarily one of its causes. In other words, income does not determine the status of an individual or household, income and prestige are the incentives in order to fill all positions with the most qualified and motivated personnel possible

15.
U.S. Census Bureau
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The United States Census Bureau is a principal agency of the U. S. Federal Statistical System, responsible for producing data about the American people and economy. The Census Bureaus primary mission is conducting the U. S. Census every ten years, in addition to the decennial census, the Census Bureau continually conducts dozens of other censuses and surveys, including the American Community Survey, the U. S. Economic Census, and the Current Population Survey, furthermore, economic and foreign trade indicators released by the federal government typically contain data produced by the Census Bureau. The Bureaus various censuses and surveys help allocate over $400 billion in federal funds every year and help states, local communities, the Census Bureau is part of the U. S. Department of Commerce and its director is appointed by the President of the United States. The Census Bureau now conducts a population count every 10 years in years ending with a 0. Between censuses, the Census Bureau makes population estimates and projections, the Census Bureau is mandated with fulfilling these obligations, the collecting of statistics about the nation, its people, and economy. The Census Bureaus legal authority is codified in Title 13 of the United States Code, the Census Bureau also conducts surveys on behalf of various federal government and local government agencies on topics such as employment, crime, health, consumer expenditures, and housing. Within the bureau, these are known as surveys and are conducted perpetually between and during decennial population counts. The Census Bureau also conducts surveys of manufacturing, retail, service. Between 1790 and 1840, the census was taken by marshals of the judicial districts, the Census Act of 1840 established a central office which became known as the Census Office. Several acts followed that revised and authorized new censuses, typically at the 10-year intervals, in 1902, the temporary Census Office was moved under the Department of Interior, and in 1903 it was renamed the Census Bureau under the new Department of Commerce and Labor. The department was intended to consolidate overlapping statistical agencies, but Census Bureau officials were hindered by their role in the department. An act in 1920 changed the date and authorized manufacturing censuses every 2 years, in 1929, a bill was passed mandating the House of Representatives be reapportioned based on the results of the 1930 Census. In 1954, various acts were codified into Title 13 of the US Code, by law, the Census Bureau must count everyone and submit state population totals to the U. S. President by December 31 of any year ending in a zero. States within the Union receive the results in the spring of the following year, the United States Census Bureau defines four statistical regions, with nine divisions. The Census Bureau regions are widely used. for data collection, the Census Bureau definition is pervasive. Title 13 of the U. S. Code establishes penalties for the disclosure of this information, all Census employees must sign an affidavit of non-disclosure prior to employment. The Bureau cannot share responses, addresses or personal information with anyone including United States or foreign government, only after 72 years does the information collected become available to other agencies or the general public

16.
Women in the workforce
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Until modern times, legal and cultural practices, combined with the inertia of longstanding religious and educational conventions, restricted womens entry and participation in the workforce. Womens lack of access to education had effectively excluded them from the practice of well-paid. Women were largely limited to low-paid and poor status occupations for most of the 19th and 20th centuries, or earned less pay than men for doing the same work. Women are viewed as the caregiver to children still to this day. The increasing rates of women contributing in the force has led to a more equal disbursement of hours worked across the regions of the world. However, in western European countries the nature of womens employment participation remains markedly different from that of men, for example, few women are in continuous full-time employment after the birth of a first child. Due to the lack of childcare and because women in Britain lose 9% of their wage after their first child and 16% after their second child. In the United States, womens earnings were 83 percent of male full-time workers in 2014. ”With the current norm in place, women are forced to juggle full-time jobs. As the Civil War raged in the U. S, much of her site visits were conducted in Philadelphia, New York and Boston. She distilled her research to list over 500 jobs that were open to women as well as the information about the jobs and she also indicated when employers offered their reasons for wage differentials based on gender. She dedicated her book to worthy and industrious women in the United States, striving to earn a livelihood, and the book garnered much attention by reviewers and scholars across the country. She sold her rights to the book to another publisher who put it out instead as an encyclopedia, The Employments of Women, A Cyclopaedia of Womans Work and it sold better once it was re-titled again in 1870 as How Women Can Make Money, Married or Single. In total, the different versions of the book ended up with 36 editions published between 1862 and 2006, and six editions of the adaptation in German. In the twentieth century, division of labor by gender has been studied most systematically in womens studies, occupational studies, such as the history of medicine or studies of professionalization, also examine questions of gender, and the roles of women in the history of particular fields. Women dominate as accountants, auditors, and psychologists and this body of law is called employment discrimination law, and gender and race discrimination are the largest sub-sections within the area. Laws specifically aimed at preventing discrimination against women have been passed in countries, see. Women still contribute to their communities in many regions mainly through agricultural work, in Southern Asia, Western Asia, and Africa, only 20% of women work at paid non-agricultural jobs. Worldwide, womens rate of employment outside of agriculture grew to 41% by 2008

17.
Educational attainment in the United States
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The educational attainment of the U. S. As a whole, the population of the United States is spending more years in formal educational programs, as with income, levels differ by race, age, household configuration and geography. Overall the households and demographics featuring the highest educational attainment in the United States are also among those with the highest household income, thus, while the population as a whole is proceeding further in formal educational programs, income and educational attainment remain highly correlated. In 2003, the percentage of the population who had completed high school or had not completed high school but obtained a GED increased for the first time since 2000. This increase follows a trend that the Current Population Survey has shown since educational attainment was first measured in 1947. Since 1983 the percentage of people either graduating from school or failing to complete high school. The greatest increases in educational attainment were documented in the 1950s, 60s and 70s, in the 1950s and much of the 1960s high school graduates constituted about 50% of those considered adults. For young adults aged between 25 and 29, the percentage of high school graduates or GED obtainers was roughly 50% in 1950 versus 90% today. For the past fifty years, there has been a gap in the achievement of males and females in the United States. In the 1970s and 1980s, data showed girls trailing behind boys in a variety of performance measures, specifically in test scores in math. Traditionally, girls have outperformed boys in reading and writing, although this gap may be minimal in kindergarten, it grows as students continue their education. On the 2008 test, female students continued to have higher average reading scores than students at all three ages. The gap between male and female 4th graders was 7 points in 2008, by 12th grade, there was an 11-point gap between males and females. On the 2002 National Writing Assessment, boys scored on average 17 points lower than girls in 4th grade, the average gap increased to 21 points by 8th grade and widened to 24 points by senior year in high school. In the more recent 2007 National Assessment of Writing Skills, female students continued to score higher than male students, the average score for female eighth-graders was 20 points higher than males, down 1 point from the 2002 score. For twelfth-graders, females outscored males by 18 points as opposed to 24 points in 2002, all of these assessments were conducted on a 100-point scale. Overall, women have surpassed men in terms of completing secondary and post-secondary education with the gender gap almost completely reversed, in 2006,10. 3% of males and 8. 3% of females dropped out of high school. In 2005/2006, women earned 62% of associate degrees, 58% of bachelors degrees,60. 0% of masters degrees, according to recent data,55 percent of college students are females and 45 percent are males

18.
Elizabeth Warren
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Elizabeth Ann Warren is an American academic and politician. She is a member of the Democratic Party, and is the senior United States Senator from Massachusetts. Warren was formerly a professor of law, and taught at the University of Texas School of Law, the University of Pennsylvania Law School, a prominent scholar specializing in bankruptcy law, Warren was among the most cited in the field of commercial law before starting her political career. Warren is a consumer protection advocate whose scholarship led to the conception. She has written a number of academic and popular works, and is a frequent subject of media interviews regarding the American economy, following the 2008 financial crisis, Warren served as chair of the Congressional Oversight Panel created to oversee the Troubled Asset Relief Program. She later served as Assistant to the President and Special Advisor to the Secretary of the Treasury for the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau under President Barack Obama. During the late 2000s, she was recognized by such as the National Law Journal. In September 2011, Warren announced her candidacy for the U. S. Senate and she won the general election on November 6,2012, becoming the first female Senator from Massachusetts. She was assigned to the Senate Special Committee on Aging, the Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee, and the Health, Education, Labor, Warren is a leading figure in the Democratic Party and is popular among American progressives. Although she repeatedly stated that she was not running for president, Warren remained neutral during the 2016 Democratic presidential primaries, endorsing presumptive nominee Hillary Clinton only after all fifty states had voted. On July 7, CNN reported that Warren was on a five-person shortlist to be Clintons vice-presidential running mate, however, Clinton eventually chose Tim Kaine. She was their child, with three older brothers. When she was 12, her father, a janitor at Montgomery Ward, had a heart attack—which led to medical bills. Eventually, this led to the loss of their car from failure to make loan payments, to help the family finances, her mother found work in the catalog order department at Sears. When she was 13, Warren started waiting tables at her aunts restaurant and she also won a debate scholarship to George Washington University at the age of 16. Initially aspiring to be a teacher, she left GWU after two years to marry her high school boyfriend, Jim Warren, Warren moved to Houston with her husband, who was a NASA engineer. There she enrolled in the University of Houston, graduating in 1970 with a bachelor of degree in speech pathology and audiology. For a year, she taught children with disabilities in a school, based on an emergency certificate

19.
Income quintiles
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Household income is an economic measure that can be applied to one household, or aggregated across a large group such as a county, city, or the whole country. It is commonly used by the United States government and private institutions to describe a households economic status or to track trends in the US. Household income is measured in various ways, one key measure is the real median level, meaning half of households have income above that level and half below, adjusted for inflation. According to the Federal Reserve, this measure was $56,516 in 2015 and this was the largest one-year percentage increase on record. However, it remained 2. 5% below the 1999 peak of $57,909, the Census Bureau estimated real median household income at $55,775 in 2015, up $2,062 or 3. 8% from the 2014 level of $53,713. Household income varies geographically and by race, the overall median has continued to rise steadily, if slowly, to $57,616 in September 2016 according to one unofficial source that reports monthly versus annually. After falling somewhat due to the Great Recession in 2008 and 2009, inequality rose again during the economic recovery, the residents of the household do not have to be related to the head of the household for their earnings to be considered part of the households income. As households tend to share an economic context, the use of household income remains among the most widely accepted measures of income. The U. S. Census Bureau reported in September 2016 that real median income was $55,775 in 2015. This was the third year with a statistically significant increase by their measure. The U. S. Census Bureau reported in September 2014 that, U. S. real median income was $51,939 in 2013 versus $51,759 in 2012. In 2013, real median income was 8.0 percent lower than in 2007. Real median household income averaged $50,781 from 1964-2013, ranging from a low of $43,558 in 1967 to a high of $56,895 in 1999, the recovery from the 2007-2009 recession had not translated into higher incomes for the typical American family. For instance, the retirement of the Baby Boom generation should push down overall median income, however, analysis of different working age groups indicate a similar pattern of stagnating median income as well. But foreign-produced goods became sharply cheaper, meaning imports climbed and production moved overseas, and computers took over for humans in many manufacturing, clerical, and administrative tasks, eroding middle-class jobs growth and suppressing wages. Another line of analysis, known as compensation, presents a more complete picture of real wages. The Kaiser Family Foundation conducted a study in 2013 which shows that employer contributions to healthcare costs went up 78% from 2003 to 2013. The marketplace has made a trade-off, expanding benefits packages vs. increasing wages, measured relative to GDP, total compensation and its component wages and salaries have been declining since 1970

20.
Asian American
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Asian Americans are Americans of Asian descent. The term refers to a group that includes diverse populations who have ancestral origins in East Asia, Southeast Asia, or South Asia. This includes people who indicate their race on the census as Asian or reported entries such as Asian Indian, Chinese, Filipino, Korean, Japanese, Vietnamese, and Other Asian. Asian Americans with no other ancestry comprise 4. 8% of the U. S. population, although migrants from Asia have been in parts of the contemporary United States since the 17th century, large-scale immigration did not begin until the mid-18th century. Nativist immigration laws during the 1880s-1920s excluded various Asian groups, eventually prohibiting almost all Asian immigration to the continental United States, after immigration laws were reformed during the 1940s-60s, abolishing national origins quotas, Asian immigration increased rapidly. Analyses of the 2010 census have shown that Asian Americans are the fastest growing racial or ethnic minority in the United States, starting in the first few years of the 2000 decade, Asian American earnings began exceeding all other racial groups for both men and women. For example, in 2008 Asian Americans had the highest median household income overall of any racial demographic, in 2012, Asian Americans had the highest educational attainment level and median household income of any racial demographic in the country. In 2015, Asian American men were the highest earning racial group as they earned 117% as much as white American men, once country of birth and other demographic factors are taken into account, Asian Americans are no more likely than non-Hispanic whites to live in poverty. As with other racial and ethnicity based terms, formal and common usage have changed markedly through the history of this term. Prior to the late 1960s, people of Asian ancestry were referred to as Oriental, Asiatic. Today, Asian American is the term for most formal purposes, such as government and academic research. The most commonly used definition of Asian American is the US Census Bureau definition, which all people with origins in the Far East, Southeast Asia. This is chiefly because the census definitions determine many government classifications, notably for equal opportunity programs, according to the Oxford English Dictionary, Asian person in the United States is sometimes thought of as a person of East Asian descent. In vernacular usage, Asian is often used to refer to those of East Asian descent or anyone else of Asian descent with epicanthic eyefolds. This differs from the U. S. Census definition and the Asian American Studies departments in many universities consider all those of East, before 1980, Census forms listed particular Asian ancestries as separate groups, along with white and black or negro. Asian Americans had also been classified as other, in 1977, the federal Office of Management and Budget issued a directive requiring government agencies to maintain statistics on racial groups, including on Asian or Pacific Islander. The 1980 census marked the first classification of Asians as a large group, by the 1990 census, Asian or Pacific Islander was included as an explicit category, although respondents had to select one particular ancestry as a subcategory. The 2000 census onwards separated the category into two separate ones, Asian American and Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander, the definition of Asian American has variations that derive from the use of the word American in different contexts

21.
Non-Hispanic White
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Non-Hispanic whites are a subcategory of white Americans, the other being white Hispanic and Latino Americans. In the United States, this population was first derived from English settlement of the Americas, as well as settlement by other Europeans such as the Germans and Dutch that began in the 17th century. In 2011, for the first time in U. S. history, non-Hispanic whites accounted for half of the births in the country. At 197.2 million in 2012, non-Hispanic whites comprise 62. 8% of the total U. S. population. The Non-Hispanic white population in the United States has been declining since the 1940s as a percentage of the total US population due to a number of factors,1, Non-Hispanic whites are having fewer children relative to other groups. Preliminary 2012 data show that whites have a total fertility rate of 1.76 children per woman, compared to 1.90 for non-Hispanic blacks,2.19 for Hispanics. Since 1990, rates for other races have been falling while the white rate has been more or less stable. The U. S. takes more immigrants than the rest of the world combined with the vast majority coming from countries where the population is of non-white and/or Hispanic origin, in 2009, approximately 90% of all immigrants came from non-European countries. The U. S. does receive a number of non-Hispanic white immigrants, mainly from countries such as Brazil, Canada, Poland, Russia. The USA is seeing an increase in intermarriage between the various racial and ethnic groups. In 2008, a record 14. 6% of all new marriages in the United States were between spouses of a different race or ethnicity from one another, 9% of non-Hispanic whites who married in 2008 married either a non-white or Hispanic. Among all newlyweds in 2008, intermarried pairings were primarily white-Hispanic of any race as compared to white-Asian, white-black, other combinations consists of pairings between different minority groups, multi-racial people, and American Indians. The children of such unions would not generally be classified as white Non-Hispanic, in the 2000 Census, people were allowed to check more than one race in addition to choosing Hispanic. There was strong opposition to this from some civil rights activists who feared that this would reduce the size of various racial minorities, the government responded by counting those who are white and of one minority race or ethnicity as minorities for the purposes of civil-rights monitoring and enforcement. Hence one could be 1/8th black and still be counted as a minority, also, because this does not apply to Hispanic origin, the offspring of Hispanics and non-Hispanics are usually counted as Hispanic. Minority populations are younger than non-Hispanic whites, the national median age in 2011 was 37.3 with non-Hispanic whites having the oldest median age while Hispanics have the youngest. Non-Hispanic blacks and non-Hispanic Asians also are younger than whites, although non-Hispanic whites are declining as a percentage, in actual numbers they have still been growing. From 2000 -2010 the non-Hispanic white population grew from 194,552,774 to 196,817,552 - A growth of 1. 2% over the 10-year period, as of 2012, four states are majority-minority, Hawaii, California, New Mexico, and Texas

22.
Hispanic or Latino American
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Hispanic Americans and Latino Americans, are Americans who are descendants of the peoples of Spain, Portugal, or the Spanish- or Portuguese-speaking countries of Latin America. More generally, it includes all persons in the United States who self-identify as Hispanic or Latino, other U. S. government agencies have slightly different definitions of the term, including Brazilians and other Portuguese-speaking groups. The Census Bureau uses the terms Hispanic and Latino interchangeably, origin can be viewed as the ancestry, nationality group, lineage, or country of birth of the person or the persons parents or ancestors before their arrival in the United States. People who identify as Spanish, Hispanic, or Latino may be of any race, as the only specifically designated category of ethnicity in the United States, Hispanics form a pan-ethnicity incorporating a diversity of inter-related cultural and linguistic heritages. Most Hispanic Americans are of Mexican, Puerto Rican, Cuban, Salvadoran, Dominican, Guatemalan, the predominant origin of regional Hispanic populations varies widely in different locations across the country. Hispanic Americans are the second fastest-growing ethnic group in the United States after Asian Americans, hispanic/Latinos overall are the second-largest ethnic group in the United States, after non-Hispanic Whites. Hispanics have lived within what is now the United States continuously since the founding of St. Augustine by the Spanish in 1565, after Native Americans, Hispanics are the oldest ethnic group to inhabit much of what is today the United States. Spain colonized large areas of what is today the American Southwest and West Coast, the terms Hispanic and Latino refer to an ethnicity, people of this group may be of any race. Hispanic people may share some commonalities in their language, culture, history, according to the Smithsonian Institution, the term Latino includes peoples with Portuguese roots, such as Brazilians, as well as those of Spanish-language origin. In the United States, many Hispanics and Latinos are of both European and Native American ancestry, others are wholly or predominately of European ancestry, or wholly or predominantly of Amerindian ancestry. Many Hispanics and Latinos from the Caribbean, as well as regions of Latin America where African slavery was widespread. The difference between the terms Hispanic and Latino is confusing to some, the U. S. Census Bureau equates the two terms and defines them as referring to anyone from Spain and the Spanish-speaking countries of the Americas. The term Latino has developed a number of definitions, one definition of Latino is a Latin male in the United States. This is the oldest and the definition used in the United States. This definition encompasses Spanish speakers from both Europe and the Americas, under this definition, immigrants from Spain and immigrants from Latin America are both Latino. This definition is consistent with the 21st-century usage by the U. S. Census Bureau and OMB, a later definition of Latino is as a condensed form of the term Latino-Americano, the Spanish word for Latin-American, or someone who comes from Latin America. Under this definition a Mexican American or Puerto Rican, for example, is both a Hispanic and a Latino, a Brazilian American is also a Latino by this definition, which includes those of Portuguese-speaking origin from Latin America. An immigrant from Spain, however, would be classified as Hispanic, while the U. S. Census Bureaus definition of Hispanic is limited to Spain and Spanish-speaking Latin America, other government agencies have slightly different definitions of the term

23.
Black American
–
African Americans are an ethnic group of Americans with total or partial ancestry from any of the Black racial groups of Africa. The term may also be used to only those individuals who are descended from enslaved Africans. As a compound adjective the term is usually hyphenated as African-American, Black and African Americans constitute the third largest racial and ethnic group in the United States. Most African Americans are of West and Central African descent and are descendants of enslaved peoples within the boundaries of the present United States. On average, African Americans are of 73. 2–80. 9% West African, 18–24% European, according to US Census Bureau data, African immigrants generally do not self-identify as African American. The overwhelming majority of African immigrants identify instead with their own respective ethnicities, immigrants from some Caribbean, Central American and South American nations and their descendants may or may not also self-identify with the term. After the founding of the United States, black people continued to be enslaved, believed to be inferior to white people, they were treated as second-class citizens. The Naturalization Act of 1790 limited U. S. citizenship to whites only, in 2008, Barack Obama became the first African American to be elected President of the United States. The first African slaves arrived via Santo Domingo to the San Miguel de Gualdape colony, the ill-fated colony was almost immediately disrupted by a fight over leadership, during which the slaves revolted and fled the colony to seek refuge among local Native Americans. De Ayllón and many of the colonists died shortly afterwards of an epidemic, the settlers and the slaves who had not escaped returned to Haiti, whence they had come. The first recorded Africans in British North America were 20 and odd negroes who came to Jamestown, as English settlers died from harsh conditions, more and more Africans were brought to work as laborers. Typically, young men or women would sign a contract of indenture in exchange for transportation to the New World, the landowner received 50 acres of land from the state for each servant purchased from a ships captain. An indentured servant would work for years without wages. The status of indentured servants in early Virginia and Maryland was similar to slavery, servants could be bought, sold, or leased and they could be physically beaten for disobedience or running away. Africans could legally raise crops and cattle to purchase their freedom and they raised families, married other Africans and sometimes intermarried with Native Americans or English settlers. By the 1640s and 1650s, several African families owned farms around Jamestown and some became wealthy by colonial standards and purchased indentured servants of their own. In 1640, the Virginia General Court recorded the earliest documentation of slavery when they sentenced John Punch. One of Dutch African arrivals, Anthony Johnson, would own one of the first black slaves, John Casor

24.
Bachelor's degree
–
A bachelors degree or baccalaureate is an undergraduate academic degree awarded by colleges and universities upon completion of a course of study lasting three to seven years. In some institutions and educational systems, some bachelors degrees can only be taken as graduate or postgraduate degrees after a first degree has been completed. The term bachelor in the 12th century referred to a knight bachelor, by the end of the 13th century, it was also used by junior members of guilds or universities. By folk etymology or wordplay, the word came to be associated with bacca lauri in reference to laurels being awarded for academic success or honours. An honours degree generally requires an academic standard than a pass degree. In most African countries, the university systems follow the model of their former colonizing power, for example, the Nigerian university system is similar to the British system, while the Ivorian system is akin to the French. The degree is typically identical to the program of Frances universities, bachelors degree programs cover most of the fields in Algerian universities, except some fields, such as Medicine and Pharmaceutical Science. Bachelors degrees at the University of Botswana normally take four years, the system draws on both British and American models. Degrees are classified as First Class, Second Class Division One, Second Class Division Two and Third as in English degrees, but without being described as honours. The main degrees are named by British tradition, but in recent years there have been a numbers of degrees named after specific subjects, such as Bachelor of Library, in Morocco, a bachelors degree is referred to as al-ʾijāzah. The course of study takes three years, which are divided into two cycles. The first cycle comprises the first, or propaedeutic, year, after successfully completing their first two years, students can pursue either theoretical specialization or professional specialization. The second cycle is one long, after whose completion students receive the licence détudes fondamentales or the licence professionnelle. This academic degree system was introduced in September 2003, University admission is extremely competitive, with attendant advantages and disadvantages. Nonetheless, it takes four to five years to complete a bachelors degree, in cases of poor performance, the time limit is double the standard amount of time. For example, one may not study for more than 10 years for a five-year course, students are normally asked to leave if they must take longer. B. Arch. and other specialized undergraduate degrees, such as B. Eng, Science undergraduate degrees may require six months or a semester dedicated to SIWES but it is usually mandatory for all engineering degrees. A semester for project work/thesis is required, not excluding course work, the classifications of degrees, first-class, second-class, third-class and a pass

25.
Master's degree
–
A masters degree normally requires previous study at the bachelors level, either as a separate degree or as part of an integrated course. The original meaning of the degree was thus that someone who had been admitted to the rank of master in one university should be admitted to the same rank in other universities. This gradually became formalised as the licentia docendi, initially, the Bachelor of Arts was awarded for the study of the trivium and the Master of Arts for the study of the quadrivium. The nineteenth century saw an expansion in the variety of masters degrees offered. By 1861 this had been adopted throughout Scotland as well as by Cambridge and Durham in England, when the Philadelphia College of Surgeons was established in 1870, it too conferred the Master of Surgery, the same as that in Europe. In the United States, the first masters degrees were awarded at Harvard University soon after its foundation, at Harvard the 1700 regulations required that candidates for the masters degree had to pass a public examination, but by 1835 this was awarded Oxbridge-style 3 years after the BA. In Scotland, Edinburgh maintained separate BA and MA degrees until the mid nineteenth century, in Scotland all the statutes of the Universities which enforced conditions on the grant of degrees were a dead letter. Probably the most important masters degree introduced in the 19th century was the Master of Science, at the University of Michigan this was introduced in two forms in 1858, in course, first awarded in 1859, and on examination, first awarded in 1862. The in course MS was last awarded in 1876, in Britain, however, the degree took a while longer to arrive. The same two degrees, again omitting the masters, were awarded at Edinburgh, despite the MA being the undergraduate degree for Arts in Scotland. In 1862, a Royal Commission suggested that Durham should award masters degrees in theology and science and this scheme would appear to have then been quietly dropped, with Oxford going on to award BAs and MAs in science. The Master of Science degree was introduced in Britain in 1878 at Durham. At the Victoria University both the MA and MSc followed the lead of Durhams MA in requiring an examination for those with an ordinary bachelors degree. The Bologna declaration in 1999 started the Bologna Process, leading to the creation of the European Higher Education Area, as the process continued, descriptors were introduced for all three levels in 2004, and ECTS credit guidelines were developed. This led to questions as to the status of the masters degrees. In 1903, the London Daily News criticised the practice of Oxford and Cambridge, calling their MAs the most stupendous of academic frauds, in 1900, Dartmouth College introduced the Master of Commercial Science, first awarded in 1902. This was the first masters degree in business, the forerunner of the modern MBA, the idea quickly crossed the Atlantic, with Manchester establishing a Faculty of Commerce, awarding Bachelor and Master of Commerce degrees, in 1903. Over the first half of the century the masters degrees for honours graduates vanished as honours degrees became the standard undergraduate qualification in the UK

26.
Doctorate
–
There are a variety of doctoral degrees, with the most common being the Doctor of Philosophy, which is awarded in many different fields, ranging from the humanities to the scientific disciplines. The term doctor derives from the Latin docere meaning to teach, the doctorate appeared in medieval Europe as a license to teach Latin at a university. Its roots can be traced to the church in which the term doctor referred to the Apostles, church fathers. The right to grant a licentia docendi was originally reserved to the Catholic church, the Third Council of the Lateran of 1179 guaranteed the access—at that time largely free of charge—of all able applicants. This right remained a bone of contention between the authorities and universities that were slowly distancing themselves from the Church. The right was granted by the pope to the University of Paris in 1213 where it became a universal license to teach, according to Keith Allan Noble, the first doctoral degree was awarded in medieval Paris around 1150. The so-called professional, vocational, or technical curriculum of the Middle Ages included only theology, law, the doctorate of philosophy developed in Germany in the 17th century. The term philosophy does not refer solely to the field or academic discipline of philosophy, but is used in a sense in accordance with its original Greek meaning. In most of Europe, all fields were traditionally known as philosophy, the doctorate of philosophy adheres to this historic convention, even though the degrees are not always for the study of philosophy. D. University doctoral training was a form of apprenticeship to a guild, the traditional term of study before new teachers were admitted to the guild of Masters of Arts was seven years, matching the apprenticeship term for other occupations. Originally the terms master and doctor were synonymous, but over time the doctorate came to be regarded as a higher qualification than the masters degree, University degrees, including doctorates, were originally restricted to men. The use and meaning of the doctorate has changed over time, for instance, until the early 20th century few academic staff or professors in English-speaking universities held doctorates, except for very senior scholars and those in holy orders. After that time the German practice of requiring lecturers to have completed a research doctorate spread, universities shift to research-oriented education increased the doctorates importance. Today, a doctorate or its equivalent is generally a prerequisite for an academic career. Professional doctorates developed in the United States from the 19th century onward, the first professional doctorate to be offered in the United States was the M. D. The MD became the standard first degree in medicine during the 19th century, the MD, as the standard qualifying degree in medicine, gave that profession the ability to set and raise standards for entry into professional practice. The modern research degree, in the shape of the German-style Ph. D. was first awarded in the U. S. in 1861, in the UK, research doctorates initially took the form of higher doctorates, introduced from 1882 onwards. The PhD spread to the UK from the US via Canada, following the MD, the next professional doctorate, the Juris Doctor, was established by Chicago University in 1902

27.
Supply and demand
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In microeconomics, supply and demand is an economic model of price determination in a market. By contrast, responses to changes in the price of the good are represented as movements along unchanged supply, a supply schedule is a table that shows the relationship between the price of a good and the quantity supplied. Under the assumption of perfect competition, supply is determined by marginal cost and that is, firms will produce additional output while the cost of producing an extra unit of output is less than the price they would receive. A hike in the cost of raw goods would decrease supply, shifting costs up, while a discount would increase supply, shifting costs down, by its very nature, conceptualizing a supply curve requires the firm to be a perfect competitor. This is true because each point on the curve is the answer to the question If this firm is faced with this potential price, how much output will it be able to. Economists distinguish between the curve of an individual firm and between the market supply curve. The market supply curve is obtained by summing the quantities supplied by all suppliers at each potential price, thus, in the graph of the supply curve, individual firms supply curves are added horizontally to obtain the market supply curve. Economists also distinguish the market supply curve from the long-run market supply curve. In this context, two things are assumed constant by definition of the run, the availability of one or more fixed inputs. In the long run, firms have a chance to adjust their holdings of physical capital, furthermore, in the long run potential competitors can enter or exit the industry in response to market conditions. For both of these reasons, long-run market supply curves are generally flatter than their short-run counterparts, the determinants of supply are, Production costs, how much a goods costs to be produced. Production costs are the cost of the inputs, primarily labor, capital, energy and they depend on the technology used in production, and/or technological advances. Following the law of demand, the curve is almost always represented as downward-sloping, meaning that as price decreases. Just like the supply curves reflect marginal cost curves, demand curves are determined by marginal utility curves, the demand schedule is defined as the willingness and ability of a consumer to purchase a given product in a given frame of time. It is aforementioned, that the curve is generally downward-sloping. Two different hypothetical types of goods with upward-sloping demand curves are Giffen goods, by its very nature, conceptualizing a demand curve requires that the purchaser be a perfect competitor—that is, that the purchaser has no influence over the market price. This is true because each point on the curve is the answer to the question If this buyer is faced with this potential price. If a buyer has market power, so its decision of how much to buy influences the price, then the buyer is not faced with any price

28.
Social structure of the United States
–
Social class in the United States is a controversial issue, having many competing definitions, models, and even disagreements over its very existence. Many Americans believe in a simple model that includes the rich, the middle class. More complex models that have been proposed describe as many as a dozen class levels, while others deny the very existence, in the European sense. Most definitions of structure group people according to wealth, income, education, type of occupation. Most of the social classes entirely ignore the existence of black, Hispanic. Sociologists Dennis Gilbert, William Thompson, Joseph Hickey, and James Henslin have proposed class systems with six distinct social classes, some definitions of class look only at numerical measures such as wealth or income. Others take into account qualitative factors, such as education, culture, there is no consensus on which of these variables is essential and which are merely common correlates. Social class is presented as a description of how members of the society have sorted themselves along a continuum of positions varying in importance, influence, prestige. In these models, certain occupations are considered to be desirable and influential, while others are considered to be menial, repetitive, generally, the higher the ranking on such a scale, the higher the skill and education levels required to perform it. Some sociologists consider the income and prestige of higher ranked jobs to simply be incentives to encourage members of society to obtain the skills necessary to perform important work. This is an important mechanism in the theory of capitalism. In other cases, class or status is inherited and those taking the functionalist approach to sociology and economics view social classes as components essential for the survival of complex societies such as American society. Income in the United States is most commonly measured by United States Census Bureau in terms of household or individual. As 82% of all households, 16% of those in the top quintiles, had two income earners the discrepancy between household and personal income is quite considerable. In 2005 the top 95% of income earners made $12,500 or more, personal income is largely the result of scarcity. As individuals who hold higher status positions tend to possess rare skills or assume positions society deems very essential, have higher incomes, overall the median household income was $46,326 in 2005 while the median personal income was $32,140. Per capita household income, the income a household is able to allocate to each member of the household is also an important variable in determining a given standard of living. A high household income may be offset by a household size, thus

29.
Doctor of Medicine
–
The Doctor of Medicine is a terminal medical degree for practitioners of medicine. The meaning of the varies between different countries. In countries that follow the United States system, the M. D. denotes a first professional degree awarded upon initial graduation from medical school. In those countries, the title of the equivalent first professional degree is Bachelor of Medicine, in 1703, the University of Glasgows first medical graduate, Samuel Benion, was issued with the academic degree of Doctor of Medicine. North American medical schools switched to the tradition of the ancient universities of Scotland, the Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons in New York was the first American university to grant the MD degree instead of the MB. Early medical schools in North America that granted the Doctor of Medicine degrees were Columbia, Penn, Harvard, Maryland and these first few North American medical schools that were established were founded by physicians and surgeons who had been trained in England and Scotland. A feminine form, Doctress of Medicine or Medicinae Doctrix, has also used by the New England Female Medical College in Boston in the 1860s. The MD degree is earned in four years. Following the awarding of the MD, physicians who wish to practice in the United States are required to complete at least one internship year and those who wish to further specialize in areas such as cardiology or interventional radiology then complete a fellowship. Depending upon the chosen field, residencies and fellowships involve an additional three to eight years of training after obtaining the MD. This can be lengthened with additional research years, which can last one, the Doctor of Osteopathic Medicine or DO degree allows similar practice in the United States and Canada to the M. D. degree and Doctor of Osteopathic Medicine are fully licensed physicians. The M. D. degree is awarded only by the 137 Medical Schools in the United States, similarly, M. D. s must attend M. D. rated residency and fellowship programs while D. O. s can attend either type of program. The American M. D. degree is recognized by most countries in the world. While the D. O. degree is getting more widely accepted in countries as fully licensed physicians. In Canada, the MD is the medical degree required to practice medicine. McGill University Faculty of Medicine is the medical school in Canada that continues to award the MD. MDCM is from the Latin Medicinae Doctorem et Chirurgiae Magistrum meaning doctor of medicine, upon graduation, students enter into a residency phase of training. Combined medical and research training is offered through programs granting MD-PhD, the National Institutes of Health through its Medical Scientist Training Program funds MD-PhD training programs at many universities

30.
Doctor of Osteopathic Medicine
–
Doctor of Osteopathic Medicine is a professional doctoral degree for physicians and surgeons offered by medical schools in the United States. A D. O. degree graduate may become licensed as a physician, having equivalent rights, privileges. D. O. physicians are licensed to practice the scope of medicine and surgery in sixty five countries. D. O. physicians constitute seven percent of all U. S. physicians, in 2015, there were more than 96,000 osteopathic medical physicians in the United States. One hundred forty-one medical schools offer the M. D. degree in the United States, thirty-three medical schools offer the D. O. degree at forty-eight locations in thirty-one states. Since 2007, total D. O. student enrollment has been increasing yearly, in 2015, more than twenty percent of all medical school enrollment in the United States comprised D. O. students. Upon completing medical school, a D. O. graduate may enter an internship or residency training program, which may be followed by fellowship training. One notable difference between D. O. and M. D. training is that D. O. training adds 300 –500 hours studying techniques for hands-on manipulation of the musculoskeletal system. The practice of osteopathy began in the United States in 1874, the term osteopathy was coined by physician and surgeon Andrew Taylor Still, MD, DO. Still named his new school of osteopathy, reasoning that the bone. Still founded the American School of Osteopathy in Kirksville, Missouri, in 1898 the American Institute of Osteopathy started the Journal of Osteopathy and by that time four states recognized the profession. The regulation of non-physician manual medicine osteopaths varies greatly between jurisdictions, in the United States, osteopathic physicians holding the D. O. degree have attained the same rights, privileges, and responsibilities as physicians with a Doctor of Medicine degree. Osteopathic physicians and non-physician osteopaths are so distinct that in practice they function as separate professions, as originally conceived by Andrew Still, the letters DO stood for Diplomate in Osteopathy and the title conferred by the degree was Doctor of Osteopathy. In 2015, there were 96,954 osteopathic medical doctors in the United States and 123,075 total DOs, the proportion of females in the profession has steadily increased since the 1980s. In 1985, about 10 percent of D. O. physicians were female, between 2008 and 2012,49 percent of new D. O. graduates were females. The remainder were listed as other or not entered, Osteopathic medical school curricula are virtually identical to those at schools granting the M. D. degree. Once admitted to a medical school, it takes four years to graduate. The pre-clinical years, the first and second years, focus on the biomedical and clinical sciences, the clinical years, the third and fourth years, consist of core clinical training and sub-internships in the clinical specialties. D

31.
White American
–
White Americans are Americans who are considered or reported as White. The United States Census Bureau defines White people as those having origins in any of the peoples of Europe. Like all official U. S. racial categories, White has a not Hispanic or Latino and a Hispanic or Latino component, the term Caucasian is often used interchangeably with White, although the terms are not synonymous. Whites constitute the majority, with a total of about 246,660,710, non-Hispanic Whites totaled about 197,870,516, or 62. 06% of the U. S. population. Definitions of who is White have changed throughout the history of the United States, the term White American can encompass many different ethnic groups. Although the United States Census purports to reflect a social definition of race, the 2000 U. S. census states that racial categories generally reflect a social definition of race recognized in this country. They do not conform to any biological, anthropological or genetic criteria, the Census Bureau defines White people as follows, White refers to a person having origins in any of the original peoples of Europe, the Middle East or North Africa. It includes people who indicated their race as White or reported entries such as Irish, German, Italian, Lebanese, Arab, Moroccan or Caucasian. In U. S. Hispanic and Latino Americans as a make up a racially diverse group. In cases where individuals do not self-identify, the U. S. census parameters for race give each national origin a racial value. Additionally, people who reported Muslim, Jewish, Zoroastrian, or Caucasian as their race in the Some other race section, the US Census considers the write-in response of Caucasian or Aryan to be a synonym for White in their ancestry code listing. In the contemporary United States, essentially anyone of European descent is considered White, the definition of White has changed significantly over the course of American history. Among Europeans those not considered White at some point in American history include Italians, Greeks, Spaniards, Irish, Swedes, Germans, Finns, Russians, early on in the United States, white generally referred to those of British ancestry or northern and northwestern European descent. David R. Roediger argues that the construction of the race in the United States was an effort to mentally distance slave owners from slaves. The process of officially being defined as white by law came about in court disputes over pursuit of citizenship. Scholars such as David Roediger, Paul Gilroy, and others have based some of their work on this notion, moreover, Whites tend to be disproportionately represented in powerful positions, controlling almost all political, economic, and cultural institutions. Whites made up 79. 8% or 75% of the American population in 2008 and this latter number is sometimes recorded as 77. 1% when it includes about 2% of the population who are identified as white in combination with one or more other races. The largest ethnic groups among White Americans were Germans, followed by Irish and English, White Americans are projected to remain the majority, though with their percentage decreasing to 72% of the total population by 2050

32.
African American
–
African Americans are an ethnic group of Americans with total or partial ancestry from any of the Black racial groups of Africa. The term may also be used to only those individuals who are descended from enslaved Africans. As a compound adjective the term is usually hyphenated as African-American, Black and African Americans constitute the third largest racial and ethnic group in the United States. Most African Americans are of West and Central African descent and are descendants of enslaved peoples within the boundaries of the present United States. On average, African Americans are of 73. 2–80. 9% West African, 18–24% European, according to US Census Bureau data, African immigrants generally do not self-identify as African American. The overwhelming majority of African immigrants identify instead with their own respective ethnicities, immigrants from some Caribbean, Central American and South American nations and their descendants may or may not also self-identify with the term. After the founding of the United States, black people continued to be enslaved, believed to be inferior to white people, they were treated as second-class citizens. The Naturalization Act of 1790 limited U. S. citizenship to whites only, in 2008, Barack Obama became the first African American to be elected President of the United States. The first African slaves arrived via Santo Domingo to the San Miguel de Gualdape colony, the ill-fated colony was almost immediately disrupted by a fight over leadership, during which the slaves revolted and fled the colony to seek refuge among local Native Americans. De Ayllón and many of the colonists died shortly afterwards of an epidemic, the settlers and the slaves who had not escaped returned to Haiti, whence they had come. The first recorded Africans in British North America were 20 and odd negroes who came to Jamestown, as English settlers died from harsh conditions, more and more Africans were brought to work as laborers. Typically, young men or women would sign a contract of indenture in exchange for transportation to the New World, the landowner received 50 acres of land from the state for each servant purchased from a ships captain. An indentured servant would work for years without wages. The status of indentured servants in early Virginia and Maryland was similar to slavery, servants could be bought, sold, or leased and they could be physically beaten for disobedience or running away. Africans could legally raise crops and cattle to purchase their freedom and they raised families, married other Africans and sometimes intermarried with Native Americans or English settlers. By the 1640s and 1650s, several African families owned farms around Jamestown and some became wealthy by colonial standards and purchased indentured servants of their own. In 1640, the Virginia General Court recorded the earliest documentation of slavery when they sentenced John Punch. One of Dutch African arrivals, Anthony Johnson, would own one of the first black slaves, John Casor

33.
Six figure income
–
Affluence refers to an individuals or households economical and financial advantage in comparison to a given reference group. The top 0. 12% had incomes exceeding $1,600,000 annually, households may also be differentiated among each other, depending on whether or not they have one or multiple income earners. Similarly ownership levels of gadgets and access to amenities are exceptionally high compared to other countries. Another, possibly more objective indicator is the fact that immigrants to the US come from all over the world, overall, the term affluent may be applied to a variety of individuals, households, or other entities, depending on context. Data from the U. S. Census Bureau serves as the guideline for defining affluence. U. S. government data not only reveal the nations income distribution but also the characteristics of those to whom the term affluent. Affluence and economic standing within society are often expressed in terms of percentile ranking, economic ranking is conducted either in terms of giving lower thresholds for a designated group or in terms of the percentage of households/individuals with incomes above a certain threshold. The table below presents 2006 income data in terms of the thresholds for the given percentages. Source, U. S. Census Bureau,2006 Household income changes over time, all areas of the income strata have seen their incomes rise since the late 1960s, especially during the late 1990s. The overall increase in income is largely the result of an increase in the percentage of households with more than one income earner. Instead, the majority of families with children now have both parents rising at dawn to commute to jobs so they can both pull in paychecks. Today the median income for a fully employed male is $41,670 per year —nearly $800 less than his counterpart of a generation ago, the only real increase in wages for a family has come from the second paycheck earned by a working mother. Two income-earner households are common among the top quintile of households than the general population,2006 U. S. As a result, much of the rising income inequity between the upper and lower percentiles can be explained through the percentage of households with two or more incomes. Source, U. S. Census Bureau, Income, Poverty, all figures are inflation-adjusted and given in 2003 dollars. The vast majority of Americans derive the majority of their income from occupational earnings, Income derived from an occupation is largely determined by scarcity, the economic law of supply and demand, and politics. The greater the demand for a specialty and the less supply. A correlation has been shown between increases in income and increases in worker satisfaction, additionally, higher level workers with advanced degrees are hired to share their personal knowledge, to conceptualize, and to consult

Income in the United States
–
Income in the United States is measured by the United States Department of Commerce either by household or individual. This difference becomes apparent when comparing the percentage of households with six figure incomes to that of individuals. In 2006,17. 3% of households had incomes exceeding $100,000, overall the median household income was $46,3

1.
The percentage of households and individuals in each income bracket.

Household income in the United States
–
Household income is an economic measure that can be applied to one household, or aggregated across a large group such as a county, city, or the whole country. It is commonly used by the United States government and private institutions to describe a households economic status or to track trends in the US. Household income is measured in various way

1.
This graph shows the median annual household income in accordance with the householder's educational attainment. The data only applies to household with a householder over the age of twenty-five.

2.
U.S. real median household income through 2013

3.
This graph shows the median household income in 2003 dollars according to educational attainment.

Personal income in the United States
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Personal income is an individuals total earnings from wages, investment interest, and other sources. The US Census Bureau reported a personal income of $30,240 for all workers over age 15 with income. Inflation-adjusted per-capita disposable personal income rose steadily in the U. S. from 1945 to 2008, Income patterns are evident on the basis of ag

1.
Per capita United States income, 2001-2011

Social class in the United States
–
Social class in the United States is a controversial issue, having many competing definitions, models, and even disagreements over its very existence. Many Americans believe in a simple model that includes the rich, the middle class. More complex models that have been proposed describe as many as a dozen class levels, while others deny the very exi

1.
Douglas Tilden 's monument to the working and supporting classes along Market Street in the heart of San Francisco's Financial District

2.
Many primary and secondary level teachers in the United States are in the middle class.

3.
A homeless American citizen. (August 4, 2005)

Income inequality in the United States
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This trend is evident with income measured both before taxes as well as after taxes and transfer payments. Measured for working-age households, market income inequality is comparatively high and these comparisons indicate Americans shift from reliance on market income to reliance on income transfers later in life and less than households in other d

1.
Illustration from a 1916 advertisement for a vocational school in the back of a US magazine. Education has been seen as a key to higher income, and this advertisement appealed to Americans' belief in the possibility of self-betterment, as well as threatening the consequences of not achieving economic security in the great income inequality existing during the Industrial Revolution.

2.
U.S. pre-tax and after-tax income share of top 1% households from 1979-2011, for commonly cited data series (CBO and Piketty-Saez)

3.
This Gini Index map shows regional and county level variation in pre-tax income inequality Gini index. The 2010 Gini index value range from 0.207 for Loving County (Texas) to 0.645 to East Carroll Parish (Louisiana).

Racial wage gap in the United States
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In the United States, despite the efforts of equality proponents, income inequality persists among races. Asian Americans have the highest average income, followed by White Americans, Latino Americans, African Americans, when the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was passed, it became illegal for employers to discriminate based on race, however, income disp

1.
The occupation distribution of employed persons in the United States, 1997.

List of U.S. states by Gini coefficient
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The Gini coefficient is a measure of inequality of variance. It is often applied to measure inequality of incomes in a particular area, a score of 0 on the Gini coefficient represents complete equality, i. e. every person has the same income. A score of 1 would represent complete inequality, i. e. where one person has all the income, therefore, a l

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Counties in the United States by per capita income. Areas with higher levels of income are shaded darker.

List of lowest-income places in the United States
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According to the United States Census Bureau the following are the places in the United States with the lowest per capita or median household income. Locations with populations from the 2010 census are ranked by median income as surveyed between 2008 and 2012. For comparison, locations are listed with populations per capita income from the 2000 cen

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Kiryas Joel, New York had the lowest per capita income of any location with over 10,000 population in the US, as of the 2000 census.

Inherited wealth
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Inheritance is the practice of passing on property, titles, debts, rights, and obligations upon the death of an individual. The rules of inheritance differ between societies and have changed over time, a person does not become an heir before the death of the deceased, since the exact identity of the persons entitled to inherit is determined only th

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From William Hogarth 's A Rake's Progress. "The Young Heir Takes Possession Of The Miser's Effects".

Institute for Policy Studies
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Not to be confused with the UK-based Policy Studies Institute The Institute for Policy Studies is a left-wing think tank based in Washington, D. C. It has been directed by John Cavanagh since 1998, the organization focuses on U. S. foreign policy, domestic policy, human rights, international economics, and national security. IPS has been described

1.
Institute for Policy Studies

American middle class
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The American middle class is a social class in the United States. Depending on the model used, the middle class constitutes anywhere from 25% to 66% of households. One of the first major studies of the class in America was White Collar, The American Middle Classes. Later sociologists such as Dennis Gilbert of Hamilton College commonly divide the cl

1.
Office buildings such as this are often the place of work for the vast majority of middle-class Americans, whether they are upper-middle-class professional or lower-middle-class secretaries.

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Percentage distribution of 2+ income households among the quintiles

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An upscale home in Salinas, California.

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Inflation adjusted percentage increase in after-tax household income for the top 1% and four of the five quintiles, between 1979 and 2005 (gains by top 1% are reflected by bottom bar; bottom quintile by top bar).

Fortune 500
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The Fortune 500 is an annual list compiled and published by Fortune magazine that ranks 500 of the largest U. S. corporations by total revenue for their respective fiscal years. The list includes public companies, along with privately held companies for which revenues are publicly available, the concept of the Fortune 500 was created by Edgar P. Sm

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The July 24, 2006 issue of Fortune, featuring its Fortune 500 list

Mass affluent
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Mass affluent consumers are an important target market for sellers of luxury goods. There may be a correlation between the households in the upper-middle reaches of the income strata and the mass affluent. Social class is the result of a function within society rather than merely the income of the household in which he or she resides. Both terms re

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This graph shows the percentage of "Mass affluent" Americans.

American upper class
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The American upper class is a social group consisting of the people who have the highest social rank and who are usually rich. People of this class are socioeconomically distinguishable from other classes by its greater influence, power. The study of attitudes is reasonably easy its concluded that for roughly 70% of the population – the lower 70% o

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A study by Larry Bartels found a positive correlation between Senate votes and opinions of high income people, conversely, low income people's opinions had a negative correlation with senate votes.

U.S. Census Bureau
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The United States Census Bureau is a principal agency of the U. S. Federal Statistical System, responsible for producing data about the American people and economy. The Census Bureaus primary mission is conducting the U. S. Census every ten years, in addition to the decennial census, the Census Bureau continually conducts dozens of other censuses a

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Census headquarters in Suitland, Maryland

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Seal

Women in the workforce
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Until modern times, legal and cultural practices, combined with the inertia of longstanding religious and educational conventions, restricted womens entry and participation in the workforce. Womens lack of access to education had effectively excluded them from the practice of well-paid. Women were largely limited to low-paid and poor status occupat

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Attendees at a computer business networking event for potential entrepreneurs, United States.

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An information technology networking social for potential entrepreneurs. New Delhi, India.

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Maasai women at USAID literacy event.

Educational attainment in the United States
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The educational attainment of the U. S. As a whole, the population of the United States is spending more years in formal educational programs, as with income, levels differ by race, age, household configuration and geography. Overall the households and demographics featuring the highest educational attainment in the United States are also among tho

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Achievement gaps between boys and girls in the United States are more pronounced in reading and writing than in math and science.

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Map of states percentage of population 25 years old with Advanced Degree in 2009.

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This graph shows the median household income in 2003 dollars according to educational attainment.

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Income by education and gender.

Elizabeth Warren
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Elizabeth Ann Warren is an American academic and politician. She is a member of the Democratic Party, and is the senior United States Senator from Massachusetts. Warren was formerly a professor of law, and taught at the University of Texas School of Law, the University of Pennsylvania Law School, a prominent scholar specializing in bankruptcy law,

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Elizabeth Warren

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Warren discussing the work of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau at the ICBA conference in 2011

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Warren stands next to President Barack Obama as he announces the nomination of Richard Cordray as the first director of the CFPB, July 2011.

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Warren at a campaign event, November 2012

Income quintiles
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Household income is an economic measure that can be applied to one household, or aggregated across a large group such as a county, city, or the whole country. It is commonly used by the United States government and private institutions to describe a households economic status or to track trends in the US. Household income is measured in various way

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This graph shows the median annual household income in accordance with the householder's educational attainment. The data only applies to household with a householder over the age of twenty-five.

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U.S. real median household income through 2013

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This graph shows the median household income in 2003 dollars according to educational attainment.

Asian American
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Asian Americans are Americans of Asian descent. The term refers to a group that includes diverse populations who have ancestral origins in East Asia, Southeast Asia, or South Asia. This includes people who indicate their race on the census as Asian or reported entries such as Asian Indian, Chinese, Filipino, Korean, Japanese, Vietnamese, and Other

1.
Eleanor Mariano

3.
Kalpana Chawla

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Eugene H. Trinh

Non-Hispanic White
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Non-Hispanic whites are a subcategory of white Americans, the other being white Hispanic and Latino Americans. In the United States, this population was first derived from English settlement of the Americas, as well as settlement by other Europeans such as the Germans and Dutch that began in the 17th century. In 2011, for the first time in U. S. hi

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White Non-Hispanic population percentage by state in 2012.

Hispanic or Latino American
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Hispanic Americans and Latino Americans, are Americans who are descendants of the peoples of Spain, Portugal, or the Spanish- or Portuguese-speaking countries of Latin America. More generally, it includes all persons in the United States who self-identify as Hispanic or Latino, other U. S. government agencies have slightly different definitions of

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Pedro Menéndez de Avilés, 16th century Spanish admiral who founded the first European settlement in North America (Saint Augustine, Florida).

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Castillo de San Marcos in Saint Augustine, Florida. Built in 1672 by the Spanish, it is the oldest masonry fort in the United States.

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Miami 's Brickell neighborhood is known for its large concentration of wealthy Hispanics, largely of South American descent.

Black American
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African Americans are an ethnic group of Americans with total or partial ancestry from any of the Black racial groups of Africa. The term may also be used to only those individuals who are descended from enslaved Africans. As a compound adjective the term is usually hyphenated as African-American, Black and African Americans constitute the third la

1.
An artist's conception of Crispus Attucks (1723–1770), the first " martyr " of the American Revolution. He was of Native American and African American descent.

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Jesse Owens shook racial stereotypes both with Nazis and segregationists in the USA at the 1936 Berlin Olympics.

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This graph shows the percentage of persons with the degree mentioned or higher. The latter three columns all fall under the category of describing those with a bachelor's degree or higher.

Bachelor's degree
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A bachelors degree or baccalaureate is an undergraduate academic degree awarded by colleges and universities upon completion of a course of study lasting three to seven years. In some institutions and educational systems, some bachelors degrees can only be taken as graduate or postgraduate degrees after a first degree has been completed. The term b

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A licenciatura (equivalent to a bachelor) degree diploma from Portugal

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A common design template of a bachelor's degree from the United States.

Master's degree
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A masters degree normally requires previous study at the bachelors level, either as a separate degree or as part of an integrated course. The original meaning of the degree was thus that someone who had been admitted to the rank of master in one university should be admitted to the same rank in other universities. This gradually became formalised a

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An English-language master's degree diploma from India.

Doctorate
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There are a variety of doctoral degrees, with the most common being the Doctor of Philosophy, which is awarded in many different fields, ranging from the humanities to the scientific disciplines. The term doctor derives from the Latin docere meaning to teach, the doctorate appeared in medieval Europe as a license to teach Latin at a university. Its

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Academic doctors gather before the commencement exercises at Brigham Young University (April 2008).

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The cover of the thesis presented by Claude Bernard to obtain his Doctorate of Medicine (1843).

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The ancient ceremony of bestowing Complutense 's Doctoral biretta.

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In 1861, Yale University awarded the first Doctorate of Philosophy (Ph.D.) in the United States.

Supply and demand
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In microeconomics, supply and demand is an economic model of price determination in a market. By contrast, responses to changes in the price of the good are represented as movements along unchanged supply, a supply schedule is a table that shows the relationship between the price of a good and the quantity supplied. Under the assumption of perfect

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For other uses, see Supply and demand (disambiguation).

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The price P of a product is determined by a balance between production at each price (supply S) and the desires of those with purchasing power at each price (demand D). The diagram shows a positive shift in demand from D 1 to D 2, resulting in an increase in price (P) and quantity sold (Q) of the product.

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Adam Smith

Social structure of the United States
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Social class in the United States is a controversial issue, having many competing definitions, models, and even disagreements over its very existence. Many Americans believe in a simple model that includes the rich, the middle class. More complex models that have been proposed describe as many as a dozen class levels, while others deny the very exi

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Douglas Tilden 's monument to the working and supporting classes along Market Street in the heart of San Francisco's Financial District

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Many primary and secondary level teachers in the United States are in the middle class.

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A homeless American citizen. (August 4, 2005)

Doctor of Medicine
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The Doctor of Medicine is a terminal medical degree for practitioners of medicine. The meaning of the varies between different countries. In countries that follow the United States system, the M. D. denotes a first professional degree awarded upon initial graduation from medical school. In those countries, the title of the equivalent first professi

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The University of Freiburg Faculty of Medicine

Doctor of Osteopathic Medicine
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Doctor of Osteopathic Medicine is a professional doctoral degree for physicians and surgeons offered by medical schools in the United States. A D. O. degree graduate may become licensed as a physician, having equivalent rights, privileges. D. O. physicians are licensed to practice the scope of medicine and surgery in sixty five countries. D. O. phy

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Northeast

White American
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White Americans are Americans who are considered or reported as White. The United States Census Bureau defines White people as those having origins in any of the peoples of Europe. Like all official U. S. racial categories, White has a not Hispanic or Latino and a Hispanic or Latino component, the term Caucasian is often used interchangeably with W

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President Abraham Lincoln was descended from Samuel Lincoln, and was of English and Welsh ancestry.

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The countries from which White Americans claim their ancestry.

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Actress Raquel Welch of Spanish (via Bolivia) and English ancestry back to the Mayflower.

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Three members of the Kennedy political dynasty, John, Robert and Edward. All eight of their great-grandparents emigrated from Ireland.

African American
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African Americans are an ethnic group of Americans with total or partial ancestry from any of the Black racial groups of Africa. The term may also be used to only those individuals who are descended from enslaved Africans. As a compound adjective the term is usually hyphenated as African-American, Black and African Americans constitute the third la

1.
An artist's conception of Crispus Attucks (1723–1770), the first " martyr " of the American Revolution. He was of Native American and African American descent.

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Jesse Owens shook racial stereotypes both with Nazis and segregationists in the USA at the 1936 Berlin Olympics.

Six figure income
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Affluence refers to an individuals or households economical and financial advantage in comparison to a given reference group. The top 0. 12% had incomes exceeding $1,600,000 annually, households may also be differentiated among each other, depending on whether or not they have one or multiple income earners. Similarly ownership levels of gadgets an

1.
Illustration from a 1916 advertisement for a vocational school in the back of a US magazine. Education has been seen as a key to higher income, and this advertisement appealed to Americans' belief in the possibility of self-betterment, as well as threatening the consequences of downward mobility in the great income inequality existing during the Industrial Revolution.

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Differences in national income equality around the world as measured by the national Gini coefficient. The Gini coefficient is a number between 0 and 1, where 0 corresponds with perfect equality (where everyone has the same income) and 1 corresponds with absolute inequality (where one person has all the income, and everyone else has zero income).

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Buildings in Rio de Janeiro, demonstrating economic inequality

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Income inequality and mortality in 282 metropolitan areas of the United States. Mortality is strongly associated with higher income inequality, but, within levels of income inequality, not with per capita income.